Author
Topic: Reaction to stings (Read 1906 times)

One day this summer I was stung 5 times. Very little itching. About 3 days ago I was stung on the forearm. It still itches and is red. Yesterday twice. I got stung on the neck below the chin and it is red, semi swollen, and itches. Then later on I got stung on back of the head below the crown. Just a little itching.

I'm used to yellow jackets and wasps getting me often with nothing but pain to deal with. I don't understand the itch now. The only thing different is I treated with oxalic acid a month or so ago.

Does anyone have a beekeeping trick for the cure? I have an epi pen in case I start shutting down one day.

"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

sounds like a very normal reaction. stings seem to cause different degrees of reaction in different places on the body, along with the amount of venom they manage to get into you.

send your (female) SO to the drug store for some Vagisil.

Logged

.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

sounds like a very normal reaction. stings seem to cause different degrees of reaction in different places on the body, along with the amount of venom they manage to get into you.

send your (female) SO to the drug store for some Vagisil.

LOL, I just scratch the itch. I could have a lot of fun with this but, I think it would behoove me to show restraint. Honeybee stings are like chiggers, the more I scratch the better they feel. I don't think it is life threatening.

You'd have to talk to your doctor about the vistaril, but your reaction is common. Your arm could swell up to the size if a watermelon and I still would call you allergic. You are allergic once you get a systemic reaction.

Vagisil. you know, the female itch stuff. if you get the extra strength stuff, it has a good dose of benzocaine and costs less than the other itch stuff.

there is a new hemorrhoid cream out that is supposed to be good too, but i have not checked it out.

swelling is not a systemic reaction. hives, sweating, shortness of breath, itching away from the limb that is stung...face itches when stung on hand, are systemic.

Logged

.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

I would like to add.If you have any history or symptoms of escalating or increasing effects, of anything that has changed over time how it affects you. I think you should be careful. If you have become sensitized to anything, I would be extremely careful about getting stung. If you have ever been sensitized to anything then I believe that you are at increased risk of becoming sensitized to bee stings.

If this is the case, I would urge you to treat bee stings as something that you only have a certain number of chances with. If you are susceptible to being sensitized, once you have had been exposed to bee stings one time too many, then you will have to treat being stung much more seriously. That will include the first time you have a bad reaction and learn that you are now sensitized. From that point forward you will have a MUCH GREATER BURDEN OF MAKING CERTAIN that you do not get stung - including carrying epi pens and benedryl whenever you tend bees and probably everywhere you go.

I have been sensitized and I would give anything not to have to carry this crap everywhere and not to have used up my last sting so to speak before I got sensitized. If I had it to do over again I would have made sure my suit was bee tight and used ankle protection when moving / splitting / transporting colonies.

I hope you never get sensitized. It will change your life for the much worse. I know I foolishly used up my last exposure and I have regretted it ever since and I now have a significantly larger responsibility and burden every time I tend my bees. Sew your pocket access slits shut on your suit. Sew your veil to your hat and if you are moving or disassembling or moving a colony use positively bee tight ankle protection. Gaitors are good for the ankles.

Old BlueFrom the land of political corruption and tax perversion. In..............................Kali-bone-ya

the epi-pen is for when your throat starts closing up. a little itching now and then is pretty normal. this time of year i usually swell a little and itch for a day or so but after i start getting stung o a regular basis it goes away.

One day this summer I was stung 5 times. Very little itching. About 3 days ago I was stung on the forearm. It still itches and is red. Yesterday twice. I got stung on the neck below the chin and it is red, semi swollen, and itches. Then later on I got stung on back of the head below the crown. Just a little itching.

I'm used to yellow jackets and wasps getting me often with nothing but pain to deal with. I don't understand the itch now. The only thing different is I treated with oxalic acid a month or so ago.

Does anyone have a beekeeping trick for the cure? I have an epi pen in case I start shutting down one day.

You got stung on the neck and on the back of the head. Were you wearing a veil/jacket? Seems like the reaction is getting worse the more you get stung. Please follow Old Blue's advice and try to minimize the number of times you get stung by wearing protection and making sure it is bee-tight.

I wasn't wearing any protective clothing because I wasn't mess'n with them. Normally I can walk out there, sit buy them, stick my finger in the hive, and so on, and never get stung. I was just a few feet away.

I do think the cold weather may have had something to do with it.

My son's a paramedic and he and the dr both told me not to use the epi pen unless I was gasping for breath. I'll sure play it safe tho.

I'm wondering if the place of contact is partly to blame. My last sting was on the crown of my head and I didn't have any reaction to it.

I do eat lots of honey - but from a distance away. Mine hasn't made any yet.

I saw where some folks recommend meat tenderizer. One of the ingredients is supposed to neutralize the bee venom. I wonder about that one, don't mean I want try it tho.

when i was a kid one of the dogs would run up on a skunk once every blue moon. i smell them pretty often around butler and i saw one a few weeks ago. i've got a big coon that i've caught on camera by my deer stand a few times and i see his tracks in the roads a lot. i have a bobcat skull sitting on the landing board of one hive that was knocked off a few days ago and when i put it back the bees came out to meet me. i'm going to put a camera up and if he's messing with them i'm going to trap him and wear him for a hat.

Now that you mention it, when I was young our dogs use to get sprayed every now and then. I think we had a bad case of rabies run through here in the sixties. It probably cleaned them out. I see them all the time up in the smokies.

Where on the body you get stung really makes a difference. My hands hardly notice, top of my head same. Neck itches and swells a lot more, upper arm more than lower (I learned all this before I found out how the girls were getting inside my suit, now a piece of duck tape takes care of that.) It seems that the more fleshy and sensitive a body part is, the more it will itch and swell.

JC

Logged

"Rise again, rise again - though your heart it be broken, or life about to end. No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend, like the Mary Ellen Carter rise again!"

I've been wondering if the venom level varies from one hive to another, or perhaps from one race to another. I have a particularly nasty tempered hive that managed to pop me regularly this past summer. I only have a fairly minimal reaction to their stings, little swelling, and a couple of days of itching. In the fall, we did a cutout on a colony of Italian looking bees from under a house. Those gals were so mild mannered that we were half way through the project before I finally got stung on the thumb, and then put on a veil and gloves. My thumb swelled so bad that it split open and itched like the devil for 5 days. Yes, I did remove the stinger immediately, but wow what a reaction. I was stung by my foul tempered hive a half dozen times after that with the same reaction as I had during the summer. Sure glad that cutout is so easy to get along with.

I get stung quite frequently and it always itches over the spot where I got stung. I thought that this is the standard. Getting stung and not itching is something that I've never heard of.

I had one hive that for a while there, about once a week, one bee would come out and get me between my eye brows. Never did swell up or itch. With in 15 to 20 minutes, if there was not a red spot I could not tell that I had been stung. That ended when it swarmed, tried to hive that swarm and took 5 stings to my head. I let it fly away.I find that each bee is different, even from the same hive. Some burn like crazy and then nothing. Some only burn a little and swell a lot. I suspect it depends more on the drones genetics than the queens.Jim

Logged

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."--Mark Twain